The 2016 World Series of Poker November Nine returned to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino Sunday night to battle it out for life-changing sums of money. Recent Poker Hall Of Fame inductees Todd Brunson and Carlos Mortensen were on hand to announced the ceremonial “shuffle up and deal.”
With $8 million earmarked for the eventual winner, the play was cautious at first with most of the finalists waiting it out until the table had claimed it’s first casualty.
Fernando Pons came into the final table with 12 big blinds and managed to get one all-in through before his A
6
ran into the K
J of Cliff Josephy on hand no. 16.
Josephy wound up making trip kings and Pons was eliminated in ninth place. Having already been paid out $1 million in July for making the November Nine, the Spanish account manager was not awarded with any additional prize money.
It took more than five orbits before the next player was eliminated.Vojtech Ruzicka raised in early position and was three-bet by Gordon Vayo. Jerry Wong woke up with pocket jacks and four-bet.
Ruzicka five-bet, Vayo folded and Wong called all-in. Unfortunately for him, Ruzicka had pocket queens, and they held to send Wong to the rail in eighth place. For his deep run, the Brooklyn-based poker pro earned $1,100,076.
Just eight hands later, Vayo raised on the button and Griffin Benger moved all in from the big blind for his last nine big blinds. Benger showed A
9, but he an underdog against Vayo’s pocket tens.
The flop gave Benger additional outs when it fell 988, but the turn and river were bricks, ending his tournament. The Toronto poker pro picked up $1,250,190 for his seventh-place showing.
On the 97th hand of the evening, Kenny Hallaert raised from under the gun and was three-bet by Qui Nguyen in the cutoff. Hallaert then moved all in and was snap called by Nguyen and his AA.
Hallaert was in terrible shape with AQ, although he did get some hope in the form of a queen-high flop. The rest of the board bricked out, however, and the Belgian poker pro exited in sixth place, banking $1,464,258.
After the hand, play was paused for the evening. As a result of the massive pot he won from Hallaert, Nguyen will take a commanding chip lead into day 2. Here is a look at the chip counts for the final five players.
Qui Nguyen — 128,625,000
Cliff Josephy — 63,850,000
Vojtech Ruzicka — 62,250,000
Gordon Vayo — 58,200,000
Michael Ruane — 23,700,000
Play will resume Monday at 4:30 pm PT with coverage on ESPN2. The plan is to play down to the final three competitors for Tuesday’s finale.
For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2016 WSOP landing page complete with full results, news, player interviews and event recaps.
